Ijaz Butt

Who is Ijaz Butt?

Mohammed Ijaz Butt is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in eight Tests from 1959 to 1962. A wicket keeper and right-handed opening batsman, he scored 279 runs from his brief Test career at a modest batting average of 19.92, however he was a capable wicket keeper with a first class cricket career for Lahore, Multan, Punjab and Rawalpindi where he scored 3,842 runs at 34.30 with a best of 161. For the next few decades, he worked as the director new projects at Service Industries Pakistan, expanding it to one of the largest manufacturer of footwear and motor cycle / cycle tyres and tubes. It is listed on the stock exchanges of Pakistan and has annual sales of Rs. 6 billion.

On 6 October 2008 President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board appointed Butt as chairman of the PCB. He has been involved in several controversies during his career, presiding over Pakistan during a time when security concerns—including a shooting incident involving the Sri Lankan tour bus—stripped the country of several international fixtures. He has made several attacks on current and former PCB officials and the Senate of Pakistan, and was involved in match-fixing allegations during a tour of England in 2010. His accusations of similar match fixing by the England team, though later retracted, let to speculation about his future with the PCB.